Maxwells Trading

To start, we were running late. I had made reservations months before and had been waiting to go. I hated the idea of having to miss out. When we called they were so understanding. Phew! When we arrived, we easily found free street parking. I guess with being not smack dabbed in the middle of the West Loop, this is one of the perks. When entering the building, the space was airy yet warm. The wooden seats were comfortable (slightly surprised) as that is not always the case. The menu itself was unassuming in what would wait us. It was a diverse selection of cuisines blended together. Luckily, I had received some recommendations to help. The server was also helpful to ensure we had a well rounded coursing. All items are interested to share. Things we ordered: soft shell crab, French onion dip, soup dumplings, and hot clay pot. I also had a glass of rose and my friend had an old fashion (nicely balanced and not overly boozy.) French onion dip has truffle and chive and is puréed. It contains cream cheese which is a game changed. The bread it's served with is also wonderful. Someone tried to remove it since we ran out to bread. We weren't having that. Someone even licked the spoon before we handed the dish over. The soup dumplings are also a must. They had a great umami and not oily. Everything was great. We were full, but not uncomfortable. We will definitely be back!

3.75/5Food was good, but didn't amaze us.The best dish was the Japanese Sweet Potato with Thai green curry - loved the brulee'd top of the sweet potato and green curry. Whipped ricotta was tasty, but they gave us 2 pieces of green onion bread for 2 people. It felt kind of stingy. There was so much ricotta!Soup dumpling tortellini was interesting - def had hints of xiao long bao when eating this and the mushrooms paired wonderfully. The King Salmon was a disappointment. The salmon itself was a little dry and surprisingly lacked much flavor even with the dill and vinaigrette. I was really bummed that we ordered this.Finished off with a basque butter cake. Flavors good, cake good. But damn it's a $19 dessert.

Maxwells Trading had been on my radar ever since I heard about it. It hasn't even been six months since they've opened, but they managed to cement themselves as Chicago's best new restaurant. And after dining at Maxwells Trading four times now, not only do I agree, but I believe this is one of Chicago's best restaurants, in general. Why? Well, when people think of "Chicago food", the first thing that comes to mind are Italian beef's, pizzas, hot dogs, etc. Or beloved Chicago institutions such as Peqouds, Mannys, Al's, Calumet Fisheries, Billy Goat Tavern, and so on. But in my opinion, nothing embodies what Chicago is all about more than Maxwells Trading. Spearheaded by Erling Wu-Bower, Josh Tilden, and executive chef Chris Jung, Maxwells Trading offers fantastic dishes of the New American variety. While the majority of the food here leans into Asian flavors, you will find dishes that draws inspiration from Italian, French, and Peruvian cuisine. The latter of which is evident in a delicious chicken a la brasa. But in my opinion, Maxwells Trading excels with dishes that feature Chinese, Japanese, and Thai flavors. You would think this a restaurant that offers cuisine of the fusion variety, but I believe the food is here is a the embodiment of New American cuisine and of what Chicago food is all about. The restaurant is located in the Kinzie Industrial Corridor and takes residence in a large warehouse space. The interior is sleek, modern, and has a very upscale but unpretentious vibe. The space is large, inviting, and impressive. Jazz, rock, hip hop and soul music fills the room and you will often see Erling Wu-Bower on the floor paying close attention to tables, checking in with the hostesses, having a quick chat with customers, and cueing up records on a turntable located at the end of their bar. I've even seen this guy sweeping the floor every now and then. This is all indicative of someone who is truly trying to provide a top notch experience for his many customers. I also respect the fact that he once tried to add tripe as a breakfast item at a hotel he worked at. Throughout my four visits here I have been lucky to sample a variety of dishes. I've had the Suzuki tartare, gnocchi fritto, Japanese eggplant, French onion dip, whipped ricotta, Japanese sweet potato, soup dumpling tortellini, the clay pot rice, the Loaf Lounge marbled rye, chicken a la brasa, the turbot, a magnificent basque butter cake, and the royal milk tiramisu. All of them are delicious and cooked to perfection. I didn't find anything to be underwhelming at all. In my opinion the stand out dishes are the the griddle bread with the French onion dip, the Japanese sweet potato, the Loaf Lounge marbled rye, the chicken ala brasa, the claypot rice, the turbot, and the basque butter cake. My favorite dish is the clay pot rice which features pork belly, lap cheong, shiitake, yuba, and fava beans, and Yamagata koshikari. The flavors in this remind of eating in Chinatown as a child at various dim sum restaurants. The basque is one best desserts I've ever had, in general. But you really can't go wrong with any of the food here. Order whatever looks interesting to you! My only knock on this place is that sometimes they will play jazz, and I can't stand it. I just personally hate jazz music and I say this as someone who performed in an acclaimed high school jazz band who earned very high marks at competitions throughout the state. I refuse to go to the Green Mill because of my disdain for the genre. I find it disheartening to see reviews on here proclaiming that the food is bland, subpar, and nothing special. That is just insane to me. I realize that people have different tastes and whatnot, but c'mon. I imagine a majority of them have been through a lot throughout their life and must have endured a tumultuous upbringing. They need some sort of creative outlet but are devoid of imagination or talent, so they come here with overly critical opinions. But underneath it all, they're saying, "Please, listen to me! Anyone, PLEASE LISTEN TO ME!". Anyways, the food here is outstanding. This place is truly something special and one of the best restaurants in Chicago. Do yourself a favor and keep an eye out for reservations. They're hard to come by, which is more than understandable in my opinion. A++

We were excited to try Maxwells after hearing great reviews and while we left satisfied it live up to expectations as it oddly has more traditional dishes and fusion/creative ones at the same time and neither quite worked. To start we got the last word and margarita to drink. Both had twists on the traditional format and were good, relatively light cocktails to start. The menu is created for sharing and our server recommended 4-5 dishes to share among the 2 of us.For starters we got the soft shell crab with a Singaporean style black pepper sauce and the suzuki tartare. Both were very good and our favorite of the night. The tartare had a nice kick of heat and I enjoyed the seabass pieces. I wish the crab was more crispy but the real star was the sauce which didn't taste much like a traditional black pepper sauce you would get in Singapore but this one had a lot more heat which I liked. We also got the whipped ricotta as we wanted to try the griddle bread. Overall fairly lackluster as the bread reminded me of a thick scallion naan but didn't have much flavor and the whipped ricotta w/honey was standard (I found myself looking for burnt lemon).We ended with the claypot rice as our main which in hindsight we should have tried something else. Everything was well cooked but it didn't have what I love about traditional claypot rice which is 1) the crispy, slighly burnt rice on the bottom and 2) the sauce to mix with rice. The pork belly and mushrooms were on the salty side to flavor the overall dish but it really needed a sauce that wasn't soy or chili crispy to bring it all together. The dish also didn't have a fusion element so comparing to $15 claypot rice in Chinatown, this was pretty disappointing. Finally the service was overall good but we had to get our server's attention multiple times to ask for water, order another drink, etc. Overall it didn't feel like the staff was very attentive. I'd give it 3.5 for food and rounding up because I do love good Asian inspired food but I just thought it wasn't as good as the original flavors and not creative enough to be thought of as something new.

TLDR: RUN, DON'T WALK! If you can get a resy, that is. Where to even begin?! Everything at Maxwells was impeccable! We're not talking just about the amazing food, but the cocktails, and service (by our awesome server Lorenzo *woot!*) were also FANTASTIC. His guidance was so helpful. The menu is a lot--but in a good way. It took everything in us from saying "One of each, please & thank you."I don't even know if you can go wrong with the menu. We ordered 2 items from each section of the menu (Beginnings, Dunks, Starch, Substance) and wished we had the real estate in our stomachs to order more! For starters, we had the Suzuki Tartare and Soft Shell Crab. The Suzuki (Japanese bass; a nice lite fish) tossed in coconut, peanut, lemongrass and chili for a nice south East Asian flare was so lovely. The subtle spiciness really revved up our appetite (as if we needed the help)! The Soft Shell Crab cooked in Singaporean style black pepper sauce was just so savory. The crab was fried to perfection; it definitely didn't feel greasy or heavy. I just wanted a bowl of white rice to pour the dish on top of. The whipped ricotta was served with some lovely hybrid bread/naan. It had a very al dente chewiness that was almost reminiscent of Neapolitan pizza crust. Such a winning combo, btw. The Japanese eggplant with the herbs was really refreshing. I absolutely used some of the grilled bread to sop up the sauce! So good. But let's talk about the clay pot rice bc it was so. damn. yummy! The pork belly was so incredibly tasty and juicy. The koshihikari rice alone is a treat (definitely one of the best pedigree of Japanese rice, fyi, that has a lovely subtle sweetness to it). Add the shiitake simmered in soy and the yuba (tofu skin) and you have a mind blowingly good dish... made me want some natto with the white rice. Finally, from the substance section, we ordered the Salmon and the Half Chicken. The chicken was the juiciest damn chicken I've ever had. Didn't even know dark meat could get juicier. I wish I'd taken a photo of it before we devoured it. I dream about the ginger-scallion flavors... also, I hate collard greens but these were surprisingly tasty. I'm pretty sure I even had a second serving of it... the King Salmon in dashi is umami rich and also perfectly cooked medium rare. It was so incredibly soft. I'll definitely be back to try their bone in strip bc I'm a sucker for ssamjang but don't snooze on the chicken, I'm telling ya. Desserts were okay but I'm not a big dessert person. The milk tea tiramisu reminded me of the milk tea that you find in the magical vending machines all over Japan. (It's a very fragrant/floral milk tea, so if you're not a fan of that, maybe don't get that.)I'm a huge fan of the Japanese/Thai/Chinese flavors that they incorporate into the menu. I don't even know where else in Chicago you can get yuba (which is a very traditional Kyoto dish). Definitely will be back for round 2...and 3!

Super excited to come here as it's tricky to get a red, we booked about 3 weeks in advance for a table of 4. The day we went was beautiful where the windows were all open and the entire restaurant was covered in the late afternoon glow. Super spacious. The waitress recommended we have about 2-3 items per person and in total we got 8, which was waaay more than enough. Their wine list is incredibly extensive so had there not been someone in my party that knew a lot about wines, I wouldn't even know where to start. As for the starters, the prosciutto with fried gnocchi was amazing, honestly the best thing all evening. The griddle cakes with dips were also top notch: both the ricotta and French onion. After that the meal slowly declined. Both pasta dishes we ordered weren't bad but also not remarkable. The clay pot was good and the salt and pepper asparagus were tasty but not worth coming back for. Both rice pudding and tiramisu desserts were super disappointing so I'd recommend skipping. Overall I greatly enjoyed the dinner, but I'd focus more on ordering the items closer to the top of the menu versus the larger mains. For a Wednesday evening it was pretty empty and could prob snag a spot at the bar next time.

I've been wanting to visit this restaurant for a while now, but securing a reservation has not been easy. I can now see why - it was such a refreshing dining experience all around! The ambiance was elegant but relaxed. I loved that many of the ingredients were sourced through urban rooftop gardens. When we were there, they were also selling rooftop grown tulips... So cool! Our server was busy but managed to give us some excellent recommendations. I would never have thought of ordering the hummus, but it ended up being one of my favorite dishes! Light, creamy, and perfectly paired with the peas... Truly the best of spring! The griddled bread though- I would go back just for that. We thought the Japanese curry sweet potato and tartare were delicious as well. Comparatively, I was not as impressed with the pasta dish. The drinks were decent. The meal was pricey, but I think it's worth a special occasion or a treat yourself kind of meal! I'm already plotting my next visit!

Definitely lived up to the hype- great ambiance and the dishes offered great bites and had a unique fusion collaboration. Hits:-great cocktail and wine selections. Best Negroni I've ever had (almost had a hint of espresso scent/smooth cocktail)-loved their "dunks" such as the French onion dip and Hummus with English peas-Prosciutto and Gnocchi Fritto was good but the Coccoli at Siena Tavern has raised the bar for this rendition-Favorite dish of the night: Japanese grilled/brûlee with the green Thai coconut curry (they just changed the recipe/sauce last night) and this spring rendition was amazing. The coconut curry and the sweet grilled potatoes were so well balanced. -Hay&Straw fettuccine was light with a lot of great flavors between the garlic chives and chili crisp. The confit potatoes were fine. I really enjoyed the sauce and the noodlesMiss: The hype seemed to be around the soup dumpling tortellini but I could do without it. It has a good bite but I just wanted the skin to be thinner so I could really get the pork shoulder in the filling. Not a memorable dish The Bavette Steak salad was subpar- the steak was a little salty and the lemongrass and vinaigrette was also salty. It was a "soft salad"- the herbs, the grapefruit, curly endive- all the ingredients were just flat. It felt like it was supposed to emulate papaya salad but didn't hit the mark. I definitely want to come back again to try the rest of their Beginnings and Dunks dishes. The menu is super fun and overall the restaurant has great style and energy.

Overhyped. Place was packed to the brim & a recent list by Robb report named this one of the best in the county. I disagree. Ricotta dish was tasteless but the bread accompanying it was similar to a scallion pancake triple the price. Sweet potato was the highlight however it was combined with a soup like sauce that was weird for lack of a better term. I enjoyed the contrast of sweet versus vegetal but it was weird. Lastly the salmon just sucked. Lastly the basque cake tasted like something from a prepackaged grocery store purchase.

Look-- the food was good, it was pretty inside, our server was great but I felt like for the money it just left something to be desired. If someone else invited us and picked up the tab I would go back, but for the money I'd rather go elsewhere. It just wasn't my cup of tea but that doesn't mean it won't be yours.